With the game tied 4-4 in the 14th inning, Hernandez made a base-running gaffe that nearly cost his team the game. After a one out single by Chris Stewart, Hernandez entered the game as a pinch runner. He did not do his job very well.

The next batter, Josh Harrison, sprayed a double to center, and that’s when things got confusing for Hernandez.

Center fielder Rajai Davis nearly got to the ball, diving at the last second. The ball deflected off Davis’ glove, ...

Thursday, May 21, 2015

As Brandon Phillips put it, the game changes and adjustments simply have to made. The keys for fielders today are simply to be more precise with their tags, and to make sure baserunners who should be called out are, in fact, called out.

“But now you have to make sure to try your best not to make any mistakes because people can reverse the call,” Phillips said. “So that is one that does cross everybody’s mind. They want to make sure that they do make things happen, that they make sure they do ...

“I just think it gives you a chance to be for sure,” Harrison said. “There are times when we slide in, and they call us out, and we’re like, ‘Hey man, I got in there,’ and they overturn it. And there are sometimes where you’re like, ‘Man, I don’t think he tagged me,’ and the replay shows, ‘Okay, they got the call right.’ It leaves the chance to get things right.”

Friday, March 20, 2015

Most of us have been taught that running through the bag is unequivocally faster than diving into it. Those who dive into first base are often ridiculed for doing so, risking injury to themselves while simultaneously making themselves less likely to beat the throw. However, a new way of thinking about the physical effects on the runner as he dives through the bag — pioneered by the father/son duo that make up “Baseball con Ciencia” — shows that the diving runner could close the distance ...